+ 33 (0)6 25 31 08 81 Uri Sluckin Tradwell uri@tradwell.com

You can’t end a relationship by text: the 15 rules of ‘digital etiquette’

Social media have been with us for over twelve years, but there are no official rules on how to use them without falling flat on our faces. Oversharing and ending relationships by text are the norm. Really? Many of us are introduced to the digital social sphere by friends or children who use it carelessly. We take their bad habits with us and ofthen make them worse. Yet  prefers proper letters, written by hand with stamps rather than badly composed Facebook posts.  prefers meeting the love of your life by chance, in a bar, at a friends’ house or during a summer festival to selecting people according to overambitious criteria on Meetic. The person who said technology will replace paper has never tried to wipe their arse with a smartphone. But for most of us, pen and paper belong to the distant past; so behold, gives you a list of 15 basic social media behaviour commandments. Read more RULES OF SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE IN THE DIGITAL AGE 1. Don’t ‘overshare’ on Facebook, it saturates email boxes of your digital “friends” 2. Don’t try to flirt using LinkedIn, Viadeo or any other business platform 3. Don’t check  the phone of your loved one to see if any sexting is going on 4. Don’t post your emotionally charged day events on social media 5. When gossiping about your “friends” don’t hit “reply all” 6. Do not converse on social media when you’re angry 7. Do not post photos or messages when you’re drunk 8. If you’re stuck in traffic, warn that you’re going to be late 9. If you feel too ill to go to...

Si vous comprenez l’humour vous maîtrisez l’anglais. If you pardon the pun.

Eh oui, si vous souriez, mieux, si les plaisanteries et jeux de mots dans une langue étrangère vous font éclater de rire, cela confirme que votre maitrise est complète. Les plus grands humoristes ont souvent eu recours à la boutade, trait d’esprit faisant souvent appel au paradoxe. Les anglais sont connus pour leur humour double entendre. In French, Raymond Devos disait : « J’adore être pris en flagrant délire.» En anglais, the play on words was used a lot by Shakespeare « That dreamers often lie» the pun is that dreamers lie in bed but also lie about dreams. Lisez les puns (boutades en jeux de mots) gagnantes du récent Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival ci-après pour vérifier si vous avez de l’humeur (sic).  offre des explications gratuites à ceux qui s’y perdent ! Get it ? Start laughing now My English teacher recently recovered from a bowel cancer operation… and he tried to show me a semi colon. What’s the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter. I’ve got a joke about a fat badger, but I couldn’t fit it into my set. I work in a paper factory, where my responsibilities are twofold. Last week I called a lady a watering hole but I meant well.. I got caught up in a freak accident last year when I knocked two bearded ladies off their tandem bike. I saw a sports car being driven by a scantily clad sheep. It was a lamb bikini. I sent a food parcel to my former wife. Fed Ex. This government thinks that flood defenses are a...

Ce n’est pas tes oignons ! or Mind your own business !

Not the oignon, s’il vous plaît: fury as France changes 2 400 spellings and drops some accents. French linguistic purists have voiced online anger at the removal from many words of one of their favourite accents – the pointy little circumflex hat (ˆ) that sits on top of certain vowels. Around 2 400 words can be spelt differently, although it’s not mandatory. Traditionalists, including Tradwell will stick to the original spelling. Read more The idea is to make it easier to learn seemingly difficult words. Tradwell has always persisted in spelling weekend without the hyphen in its French travails. The circumflex will be removed from above the letters I and U where the accent does not change the pronunciation or meaning of the word. The far-right Front National waded in with party vice president Florian Philippot declaring “the French language is our soul” and the centre right mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi calling the reforms “absurd”. Tradwell is voicing its doubt as to Christian’s ability to write correctly what he says, circumflex or not. Florian’s protests hardly concern those familiar with writing. No such debate over the Channel, but what about English words spelled one way and pronounced the other? How about Wednesday spelled and becoming Wensday when spoken? It’s all down to Woden, an Anglo-Saxon god associated with both fury and poetic inspiration. He also had a career in curing horses and carrying off the dead, and Wednesday is his day. Shakespeare tried to match pronunciation with his very reasonable « Wensday, » it didn’t work. Woden got to keep his ‘d’ and his day. Receipt: when the word came into English...

The English language is in decline.

Luckily, Tradwell’s here to help. The average teenager can barely write a complicated sentence. The average adult wouldn’t know the meaning, let alone the correct use or spelling of many not so obscure words: Read more Nonplussed: so surprised and confused that one is unsure how to react. If it looks like there’s a negative at the beginning of this word, it’s because etymologically speaking, there is – it’s from Latin non plus, « no more, no further. » Still, as the word plussed doesn’t exist it confuses the mind. Americans use it to describe someone not disconcerted; unperturbed Inchoate: only partly in existence; imperfectly formed It is confusing that the in- at the start of this word is the same as the one at the start of other familiar words; incompetent or infamous. But beware; the first letters of this word are not a negative. The word comes from Latin inchoare, which meant « to begin. » Inchoate things are often just commencing. Uncanny: surpassing the ordinary or normal The word canny is rarely used but not unknown; it joins other familiar words, such as « cunning » or « sly. » The problem is that that’s not the meaning of canny. Canny used to mean « knowing and careful, » and thus uncanny meant « mischievous, » referring to spirits who played with mortals. If you are a Comic book reader you’ll be used to the word as it was used in the « Uncanny X-Men, » title, describing heroes with supernatural powers. Unabashed: not embarrassed This strange word used to have a positive friend, alas no longer in use. Abash meant « perplex, embarrass, lose one’s composure » some 6 or 700 years...

The first 50 words you say in an interview can win (or lose) the job

First 50 words you say as you walk in have the power Small talk determines your future employers’ first impressions Candidates with privileged backgrounds find it easier to make small talk You can master small talk and create a winning set of first impressions with Tradwell More small talk Stop worrying about the actual job interview, it’s what you say as you walk into the room could be the real decider. Researchers found the first 50 words a candidate says could make up the interviewer’s mind. It is the first impression largely made by small talk on the way to the interview room that carries the weight and swings it; you can project a positive or negative light on yourself. It’s that first light that matters, think of a glorious woman or a handsome man entering a room with a banana smile and a warm “how are you, it’s a beautiful day and I’d love to spend it with you”. Would you be inclined to employ this particular candidate, if she or he had the required experience? Recently, a charity which helps disadvantaged young people back into employment, found both agents and employers judged people on the quality of their initial utterings. It said people with privileged backgrounds find it easier to make effective small talk, which puts them at an advantage. A spokesperson for the charity recently declared: ‘Unlocking the secret world of the workplace is not about being upper class. It is asking basic questions such as “How are you?” or “How was your weekend?” ‘It is things like how you greet the interviewer, what you say...